The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending November 13, 2016

Unit sales of print books declined 7% in the week ended Nov. 13, 2016, compared to the similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. For the second week in a row, sales fell in all four major categories. In both the adult nonfiction and juvenile nonfiction segments, unit sales fell 9%. Both segments suffered from difficult comparisons to a year ago, when sales of adult coloring books were heating up ahead of the holiday buying crush. In the week ended Nov. 15, 2015, the 100 bestselling titles sold 816,144 copies total and included 14 adult coloring books. In the comparable week in 2016, six adult coloring books were in the top 100 adult nonfiction bestsellers, and those 100 books sold a total of 611,333 copies. In the juvenile nonfiction segment, in the week ended Nov. 15, 2015, the 100 bestselling books sold a total of 329,795 copies, helped by four adult coloring books (two by Johanna Basford sold a combined 40,000 copies). In the comparable week in 2016, the top 100 juvenile nonfiction books sold 249,154 copies. Unit sales dropped 8% in the week in the juvenile fiction category. The two bestselling books in the week ended Nov. 15, 2015 (Jeff Kinney’s Dairy of a Wimpy Kid: Old School and the Harry Potter Coloring Book), sold a combined 271,000 copies, while the two top titles in the similar week in 2016 (Dairy of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) sold a combined 190,000 copies. Overall, the top 100 juvenile titles sold 736,849 copies, down 17% from a year ago. Unit sales in adult fiction slipped by less than 1% in the week. The #1 title, Lee Child’s Night School, sold more than 81,000 copies in its first week.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

*Totals for 2016 include units sold through Family Christian Stores. No sales through Family Christian are included in 2015.